Planning fees

Planning fees will increase by 20% from January 17, 2018, as a result of new government regulations made on December 20, 2017 – the first planning fee increase for five years.

The 20% increase was offered by government to all local planning authorities in England on condition that they agreed to re-invest the additional money collected by their planning departments to improve planning services. All of the planning authorities accepted the offer.

These regulations will introduce:

a new fee of £402 per 0.1 hectare for Permission in Principle applications

the ability for authorities to charge for applications for planning permission following the removal of permitted development rights through Article 4 directions or by condition

Also coming into effect from January 17, 2018, will be a fee of £96 for prior approval applications to permitted development rights that were introduced in April 2015 and April 2017.

These include:

the rights for the installation of solar PV equipment on non-domestic buildings

the erection of click-and-collect facilities within the land area of a shop

the temporary use of buildings or land for film-making purposes

the provision of temporary school buildings on vacant commercial land for state-funded schools.

Payments

You can pay online (link opens in new window) for planning applications. On the payments page, please select 'Miscellaneous', then 'Planning' and then the type of application you are applying for (please see the fees schedule below for the online payment reference related to the type of application you are submitting). In the message box field of the payment form, please enter the site address, planning portal reference number or case reference number (if known) relating to the application being paid for when paying online. This information is crucial for matching the payment with the application.

We can still accept cheques. Please make payable to Central Bedfordshire Council.

Applications which are not exempt from the fees regulations and which are not accompanied by a fee, or by a fee appropriate to the development for which permission is sought, will not be processed until the correct fee has been received. A receipt issues by us does not imply that the submitted fee is necessarily correct and if this is so, you will be notified accordingly.